Giving and Receiving Feedback in Academia – Across Cultures, Hierarchies & Departments

Working as researchers or in research-supportive roles means working in a highly competitive, international, and hierarchical environment. The interplay of individual personalities, role identities, culture-specific imprints, and characteristics of the research institution as well as the chosen career paths of its members – all that accounts for a dynamic working culture that comes with its own challenges. This may prove both stimulating and demanding.

One of the most frequently named stress factors in research is feedback: how it is delivered (or avoided), the messages it contains, and how difficult it often is both to receive and to give feedback in a way that genuinely creates growth and connection. This workshop is designed to offer perspectives, tools and practice to make both giving and receiving feedback more effective and enjoyable.

Objectives

• Participants will uncover typical challenges hindering feedback exchange.

• Participants will gain strategies to master these challenges, taking into account elements such as professional role, cultural background, and personal preferences.

• Participants know how to engage their supervisors, peers, supervisees, and other staff, in identifying actionable steps for enhancing communication and work experience.

• Participants learn how to communicate their own needs and requests clearly.

Methodology

We will work with the frameworks developed by Sheila Heen and Douglas Stone of the Harvard Negotiation Project, in Thanks for the Feedback, as well as with the Radical Candor Model (Kim Scott) and the SBI-I structure for engaging in an effective feedback conversation. Feedback simulations – ideally with participants’ own situation, alternatively with scripts prepared by the trainer – will play a central part in this workshop, as will interactive and individual exercises to reflect past feedback behaviors and design future steps for improvement.

Dates

The course will take place in person at the GIGA in Hamburg from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm on 18th June 2024. Please note that this course is GIGA internal only.

About the lecturer

Dr. Ulrike Schneeberg is a certified systemic trainer and business coach (Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation) with a focus on compassionate and honest communication to improve (self-) leadership in research systems. She holds a PhD in American Literature (Humboldt Universität Berlin) and has five years of international academic experience: France (Sorbonne), UK (University of Cambridge) and Canada (Université de Montréal).